DESSAIX, JOSEPH MARIE, COUNT (I 764-1834), French general, was born at Thonon, Haute Savoie, on Sept. 24, 1764. He studied medicine, took his degree at Turin and then went to Paris, where in 1789 he joined the National Guard. In 1791 he tried without success to raise an emeute in Savoy. In 1792 he or ganized the "legion of the Allobroges," and served at the siege of Toulon, in the army of the Eastern Pyrenees, and in the army of Italy. Dessaix was elected a member of the council of Five Hun dred, and opposed the coup d'etat of the i8th Brumaire (Nov. 9, . Promoted general of brigade in 1803, he fought at Wagram (1809), was made general of division and in 1810 a count. He took part in the expedition to Russia, and was for some time commandant of Berlin. He joined Napoleon in the Hundred Days, and in 1816 was imprisoned for five months. He died on Oct. 26, 1834.
See Le General Dessaix, sa vie politique et militaire, by his nephew Joseph Dessaix (Paris, 1879).